Syndicate: Prague Conference on Public Art

["Katerina Pavlickova" <katerina.pavlickova@ecn.cz>]

The SOROS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS-PRAGUE 
in cooperation with the Center for Modern and Contemporary Art of the 
National Gallery, Prague, and the City of Prague

 are pleased to present an INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE on the topic of
 PUBLIC ART, on the occasion of the 4th Annual SCCA-Prague Exhibition 
 "ARTWORK IN PUBLIC SPACES" and within the framework of the exhibition
 "Dawn of the Magicians?"

The conference will take place at the Center for Modern and
Contemporary Art of the National Gallery, Prague, Dukelskych hrdinu
47, Praha 7

on October 3 and 4, 1997



 The conference will explore the meaning of public art within the
 context of current developments in contemporary art and within
 contemporary society in general.


 The conference will focus on the following questions:

 - Is public art a late product of the social utopia of modernism or
 is it a new opportunity for the future development of art? 
- Why "public" art?  Is it a reaction against the exclusivity of
contemporary art?
 - What is the artistic value of public art? Ar ethere new criteria 
based on the social consciousness of an individual artist? Does 
creation of public art mean a restriction to an intensely personal 
character of artistic thinking?
 - What are the present forms of "public art"? What kinds of genres 
has public art developed? (outdoors sculpture, "new genre public 
art", etc.)
 - Concrete issues brought by foreign participants, for instance "how 
can public art be used to examine contemporary social problems and 
challenges" could be very inspiring for  Czech artists and managers.
 - What are the basic strategies of contemporary public art?
 - Which institutions care about public art and the contact between 
art and the public?
 - What is the meaning of the word "public"? Is it an abstract notion 
or does it have a positive articulated meaning?


PARTICIPANTS  INCLUDE:

- Vito Acconci, artist, U.S.A.
- Jaroslav Andel, director of the Center for Modern and Contemporary
Art of the National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic 
- Jon Bewley, co-director of Locus+, an art organization based in 
Newcastle upon Tyne, England, developing new strategies with visual 
artists. 
- Richard Brecknock, Professor of Adelaide University and a member of 
the City of Adelaide and the South Australian government Urban 
Design Advisory Board 
- James-M. Clark, Director of Public Art Fund Inc., U.S.A. 
- Jennifer MacGregor-Cutting, Program Director of the "Percent for 
Art", Department of Cultural Affairs, U.S.A.
- Michal Kolecek, curator, Gallery of Emil Filla, Usti n. Labem, 
Czech Republic
- Igor Korpaczewski, artist, professor of the Academy of Fine 
Art, Prague, Czech Republic 
- Pavel Liska, Director of The House of Art in Brno, Czech Republic
 - Marek Pokorny, independent art critic, Czech Republic
- Lilijana Stepancic, Director of the Open Society Fund, Ljubjana, 
Slovenia 
- Ludvik Sevecek, Director of the State Gallery in Zlin, Czech 
Republic 
- Milos Vojtechovsky, Director of  the Center for Metamedia in Plasy, 
curator and art critic, Czech Republic


You are cordially invited.


Katerina Pavlickova



Visual Arts Coordinator
Soros Center for Contemporary Arts-Prague
Ujezd 40
Prague 1
118 00
Tel. +420-2-57 00 74 02
     +420-2-57 00 74 05
Fax  +420-2-55 14 88
Office e-mail: scca@ecn.cz